The Senator – 3500 year old bald cypress

The oldest living resident of Florida and fifth oldest in the world was an ancient bald cypress known as “The Senator”. It was the reason the park surrounding it in Longwood, Florida was named Big Tree Park. The Senator measured 127 feet tall, had a trunk diameter of 17.5 feet and circumference of 47 feet according to the 1950’s era postcard below.

The tree was a tourist attraction for over 150 years, long before the arrival of Disney World, Sea World and Universal Studios.

ABOVE: Original photographs found in the Brouard Family vertical file in the Genealogy Collection at the Orange County Library System. “Big Tree Florida 1952. Oldest Largest Cypress 3500 yrs. 17 x 127 ft.” No inscription on reverse.

Photographs and postcards of The Senator occupy spaces of honor in family scrapbooks and photo albums around the country. Taking photos in front of The Senator was a bucket list item for folks visiting Florida on vacation, newly married couples on their Honeymoon, and locals out for a Sunday drive.

Time was not kind to The Senator near the end of its life. The tree’s trunk was hollowed out in 2012, when a drug user started a fire in the trunk and burned down the tree. Despite this, The Senator lives on. In 1998 cuttings of the tree were taken by the University of Florida scientists who cloned them and planted them in locations around the state, so that children of the great Bald Cyprus still flourish in Florida.

ABOVE: Postcard of visitors at Big Tree Park in Sanford circa 1950. Card reads: The “Big Tree” oldest cypress in the U.S. 3500 yrs. old – 127 ft. high – 47 ft. circumference – 171/2 ft diameter – On U.S. 17 and 92 – between Sanford and Orlando, Florida. The dimensions stated by the Seminole County Museum during the 2015 exhibition differ. They state the dimensions were 118 ft. with a circumference of 35 ft.

On January 16, 2012 we lost the oldest living tree in Florida and the fifth oldest tree in the world when the Senator in Big Tree Park was destroyed by fire. This is a poem written by Paul Peterzel, a local resident and photographer wrote about “The Senator.” The poem was published in the February/March edition of the “Seminole” magazine.

Another effort to preserve some of the original tree, resulted in a 2015 exhibit at the Museum of Seminole County History called, The Senator’s Sculptures: Ancient Wood Reborn. The display presented works crafted by Florida artists using remains from the Senator tree, a 3,500-year-old Bald Cypress which served as a landmark and local attraction for hundreds of years. From June 6 through September 30, 2015, over 100 pieces of wood sculptures derived from the largest Bald Cypress tree in the United States, created by 18 artists, were displayed at the Museum.

Additional information from the Seminole County History Museum:
The Senator was tragically burned on January 16, 2012 at its home, Big Tree Park in Longwood, which is part of the 1,400-acre Spring Hammock Preserve. Upon hearing the heartbreaking news, Bob Hughes, the owner of a Geneva sawmill and rescued wood shop, collaborated with Seminole County officials to ensure the remaining timbers and charred pieces of the tree were preserved through art for future generations. “I started thinking about maybe rescuing or saving the tree…our business is built around rescuing trees and saving what is left of them and turning them into something,” Hughes said.

Nearly all of the participating Senator wood artists are Floridians from Central Florida. The pieces crafted are all representations of Florida nature and history. Among the works, six – ten foot tall panels were finished and mounted to mimic the Senator’s circumference of 35 feet, recreating the footprint of the Big Tree inside the exhibit.

Peruse the images and documents under Attachments below.